Adriatik Dosti after statements from Serbia: “Kosovo must remain vigilant”

Publicist and analyst Adriatik Riza Dosti has reacted to statements by Serbian Minister Snezhana Paunović, which he described as indicative of a dangerous anti-Albanian approach in Serbia.

In a social media post, Dosti also criticised Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Minister Ivica Dačić, claiming that they had sought to soften or relativise Paunović’s positions. He also criticised Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, accusing him of failing to issue an official response from Tirana.

At the end of his response, Dosti called on Kosovo’s institutions and political forces to abandon internal conflicts and unite in the face of what he describes as a threat from Serbia.

Full text:

What lies behind the “Serbian Soup”…

A public statement made in recent days by one of Vučić’s ministers regarding the ethnic cleansing carried out in Kosovo in the late 1990s by Milošević and genocidal Serbia has shocked the world, and Albanians in particular.

“If I were in Milošević’s place, I would have carried out ethnic cleansing in Kosovo in the late 1990s,” Snezhana Paunović said without hesitation.

There were harsh reactions in Kosovo, rightly so according to Dosti, and there was an immediate call for one of the “Serbian criminal dragons” to be declared persona non grata.

Protests were also called for outside the EU and the European Parliament, while there were reactions from the United States, NATO and others.

According to him, the first to come to Paunović’s defence was Ivica Dačić, whom Dosti calls “another criminal”. Dačić, he writes, said that Snezhana may have meant that whoever does not feel Serbian in Kosovo should return to their homeland, Albania.

Dosti describes Dačić’s statement as even more vile and criminal.

Then, according to him, Vučić himself reacted and, following criticism from the EU and international pressure, stated that Serbia is not for war but for peace, agreements and good neighbourly relations with all its neighbours.

However, Dosti notes that Vučić did not say a single word about what he describes as the deeply anti-Albanian statements of Snezhana Paunović and Ivica Dačić.

He writes that Paunović, in another statement on Serbian television, did not publicly apologise for what she had said against Albanians. Instead, according to Dosti, she said that Serbs normally say such things among themselves every day and that her only mistake was saying them publicly, on television.

According to him, she also added that perhaps the term “ethnic cleansing” should be replaced with the word “expulsion”, and that was all.

Later, Paunović apologised to Vučić, Serbian MPs and her fellow ministers.

Dosti describes this as proof of a criminal and macabre mentality, not only on the part of a minister in Vučić’s cabinet, but also in what he considers an offensive and dangerous statement by Dačić, one of the Serbian president’s close associates.

He also mentions the public reaction of Marta Kos, whom he calls Edi Rama’s “close friend” and a “former Slovenian UDB spy”, saying that she stated she was deeply shocked by the statement in question. Dosti adds that Rama’s and Vučić’s friends may or may not be trusted.

He also stresses that there were strong reactions from several US congressmen and senators, before whom, according to him, Vučić feels genuinely and seriously guilty.

According to Dosti, there was no official reaction from Tirana, which he calls “Serbia’s No. 2 capital”.

He quotes Rama as saying that the response had been given through the Albanian state’s spokesperson, adding that they would not concern themselves with whatever every kind of madman in Belgrade says.

Dosti writes that a day later, at an international summit, Albania’s foreign minister and Serbia’s Gjurić met smiling, embraced and behaved as though nothing had happened.

He says that there were strong reactions from Pristina over the lack of response by Albania and Prime Minister Rama, while, according to him, President Begaj is not even worth mentioning, as no one has asked or paid attention to him for a long time. However, Dosti considers these reactions to be directed at deaf ears and the wrong address.

“Who do you expect to react against Serbia, against Vučić, Paunović, Dačić, Gjurić and their friends?” he asks.

He goes on to ask whether a reaction is expected from the man whose parliament refused to vote for the Resolution against Serbian crimes in Kosovo.

Dosti asks whether such a reaction is expected from the co-creator of Open Balkan, which he describes as a stab in the back for Kosovo.

He raises the question of whether a reaction is expected from the man who, according to him, was caught red-handed making ominous plans with Vučić and Baton over the division of Kosovo’s territories.

He also asks whether a reaction is expected from the man who called Kosovo’s sacred lands “no man’s land”.

He further mentions that Rama had called Ramush a donkey and told Kosovars that whoever does not vote for Thaçi is an idiot.

Dosti adds that he had also attacked Kosovo’s former president, Ms Osmani.

According to him, no reaction can be expected from the man who shut the door on Prime Minister Kurti, telling him they had nothing to discuss together, while on the other hand welcoming Vučić, whom Dosti calls a criminal, to Tirana with a red carpet and enjoying himself with him.

For this reason, Dosti addresses Kosovo with a call to keep its eyes and ears open and not expect anything from those who, according to him, have spent their entire lives standing awake with a knife behind its back.

“Water sleeps, but the enemy does not,” he writes, referring to an Albanian expression.

He appeals to the parties in Kosovo to stop their pointless quarrels and their pursuits of positions, chairs and power.

Dosti calls on them to stand up and take responsibility for Kosovo, because, according to him, the neighbour is evil, an aggressor and an enemy with whom Albanians have shed blood for centuries.

He mentions Albin Kurti’s statement that the worse the neighbour is, the better the rifle must be, saying that this is exactly how it should be.